If you didn’t know that a ring could relieve stress, you haven’t met the Oura ring. Although the handmade candy won’t be the first port I call for the Health Department, this is no ordinary loop.
And it looks like we should all take a hot minute to get over our stress. According to the America 2022 Stress Survey American Psychological Association (Opens in a new tab)About a third of adults reported feeling fatigued from stress and fatigue 70% of people have experienced a physical illness as a result in the past month.
The best fitness trackers and smartphones do just about everything these days, but can they help me manage stress, too? In light of Stress Awareness Week, I thought I’d put the Oura Ring to the ultimate stress test and see if it could help me manage and reduce stress. Find out what happened when our writer spent a month with Oura’s fitness tracking episode or read on to find out how she got there.
What is Generaion Ring Generaion 3?
Oura Ring is designed in Finland to measure, monitor and improve health and fitness with a unique focus on sleep and stress, and Oura Ring just became a much better fitness tracker, very. Ring position is set up to read your body’s signals with sensors to track sleep, oxygen, heart rate and temperature and create a personalized mapping journey of your health and habits on the partner app.
Fenugreek isn’t cheap — it retails between $299 and $399 — but if you can get past the hefty price tag, it could be a game-changer for tracking and improving stress and sleep. They say you can’t put a price on your health, but can you? I discovered.
I used my Oura fitness tracker to control stress – and this is what I noticed
I kept my ring on 24 hours a day for the first month (apart from charging) to increase the accuracy of the ring. Ora says it takes about a month for the device to turn on ‘learn’You, so you log as much information as possible. This is what I noticed.
1. Bad sleep hygiene
I soon learned that my sleep hygiene was poor. The app gives you an overall sleep score across factors like bed timeAnd the response time (how long does it take to fall asleep), Efficiency, REM sleep, And the comfort. After doing a little research, I chose to focus on two sleep factors linked to stress: deep sleep and heart rate variability.
Heart rate variability (HRV) It indicates the difference between your heartbeats and tells you how well your body responds to training, travel and stress. It is a powerful way to gauge how well your nervous system is in balance, with a higher heart rate associated with the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and repair) and a lower heart rate indicating that you are in the sympathetic nervous system (‘fight or flight’).
deep sleep Focuses on recovery. The rate should be between an hour or two per night, but this decreases with age. During deep sleep, blood pressure and heart rate drop, muscles can recover and grow, and your immune system rests. Deep sleep deprivation is usually associated with extreme stress and stimulants like caffeine and bright screens before bed (in short).
Mine HRV hovering between 42-56 (highest HRV score is 120), and deep sleep It rarely sneaks in after an hour. I have a lot of work to do.
2. Do daily meditations
Oura episode contains an exploration section filled with guided meditations, breathing exercises, bedtime stories and deeply relaxing audioscapes. Little did I know I wanted an Amazon jungle soundtrack to send me to sleep until I had one.
Search (Opens in a new tab) Show that short meditation can significantly reduce stress and improve sleep. Since then, I’ve incorporated daily meditations into my morning routine and use the quick breathing exercises in the app if I feel overwhelmed.
3. My stress levels affect my workouts (and vice versa)
When the heart rate was low, the Oura cycle had a low daily readiness score and recommended gentle exercise and rest over high-intensity training. Surprisingly, this closely aligns with how I felt and helped me check consciously, mentally and physically before training.
studies (Opens in a new tab) Show that exercise late at night can increase cortisol levels, which raises your heart rate and temperature and keeps you in good shape. ‘Warning.’ I go to CrossFit classes after work and have always struggled to sleep at nights when I’m working out late. I recently changed my routine and noticed little difference in my rest levels the next day. I now prioritize gentle yoga and stretching in the evening and schedule CrossFit classes in the morning instead.
As it turns out, my workout I was pressing on.
I used the Oura circular fitness tracker to control stress – my verdict
I’ve always been a night owl with restless sleep and stress, but this was more confirmation that all aspects of health are intrinsically linked. Our bodies are smarter than we realize, and I had to make conscious changes to improve my sleep and stress.
First in the trash were the late evening crossfit classes. I’ve always known that working out late at night isn’t ideal. Still, after sifting through Find cortisol and exercise (Opens in a new tab), compelling evidence points to severity as the problem, as you are escalated (chemically) on all fronts. Conversely, the same study found that low-impact exercise decrease cortisol levels.
While I don’t enjoy peeling myself out of bed in the morning (I know it’s counter to being a fitness trainer), my CrossFit workouts are now a staple in the morning, and I’ve already noticed my energy levels rise throughout the day. The cortisol hangover from late-night screen time and intense exercise can still disrupt my mood, but the improvements are there.
If I’m feeling down in the evening, I make a brave effort to sleep on one of the best yoga mats and stretches or do a yoga class instead. Yoga is one of the best ways to reduce stress and anxiety, and a yoga routine before bed can calm most people until they fall asleep.
What else did you learn? There are no stimulants before bedtime, so I’m currently doing Oura loop meditations instead.
But did you succeed? Although it is still early days, I must admit that I wake up much calmer and my sleep results are slowly improving. I’m a lot less efficient in the gym when I’m grumpy and tired, which only exacerbates my stress levels. Morning classes are great for sparking your energy, mood and productivity during the day, and I now have more free time to spend with my dog and partner in the evenings. the win.
If you struggle with stress and sleep, why not try some of the extra features in your fitness tracker?
If you struggle with your stress, check out Best weighted blankets And the How to sleep better at night with these tips.
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